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Nov 2024
37m 17s

195: A Quest for Gold

DOMINIC PERRY
About this episode

Sety in the Desert. Around 1300 BCE, King Sety led an expedition into the Red Sea hills. His purpose? Gold. The King brought soldiers and charioteers out to mine precious metals for his treasuries. The journey was difficult, traversing a dry and rocky landscape far from the comforts of home. Fortunately, Sety left detailed descriptions of the event; and art and artefacts from this era allow us to reconstruct the journey...

Episode details:

Select bibliography:

  • A. Dodson, Sethy I King of Egypt: His Life and Afterlife (Cairo, 2019).
  • H. Gauthier, ‘Le temple de l’Ouâdi Mîyah (el Knaïs)’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 17 (1920), 1--38. Available online.
  • K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions Historical and Biographical, I (Oxford, 1975).
  • R. Klemm and D. Klemm, Gold and Gold Mining in Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Geoarchaeology of the Ancient Gold Mining Sites in the Egyptian and Sudanese Eastern Deserts (Berlin, 2013).
  • G. T. Martin, Tutankhamun’s Regent: Scenes and Texts from the Memphite Tomb of Horemheb (EES Excavation Memoir 111; London, 2016).
  • C. D. Reader, A Gift of Geology: Ancient Egyptian Landscapes and Monuments (Cairo, 2022).
  • R. D. Rothe et al., Pharaonic Inscriptions from the Southern Eastern Desert of Egypt (Winona Lake, 2008).
  • B. M. Sampsell, The Geology of Egypt: A Traveler’s Handbook (Cairo, 2014).
  • See website for complete listing.

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